Frankly, a next generation messaging app that brings personality, emotion and privacy to mobile messaging, has announced $12.8 million in funding from JJR Private Capital, Stanford-StartX Fund and SK Planet. As the world's smartphone users continue to demand ways to better communicate without digital consequences, this latest round of funding signifies a strong shift for ephemeral messages over permanent texts, with the company reaching over one and a half million users on its platform.
As an expansion of its platform and position in the marketplace, Frankly is also announcing the start of their SDK business that will focus on bringing a customizable version of its robust, high performance messaging technology to other app developers through a simple SDK. At this time, Frankly is already working on integrations with global brands that have demographic alignment to bring a proven, effective engagement layer to standalone applications, and is now accepting selected early partners into its program.
'We are incredibly excited to back the talented Frankly team as they expand their popular messaging app globally, and together with their new SDK initiative, we believe there are enormous market opportunities ahead to become a disruptive leader in their category,' said Ron Schmeichel of JJR Private Capital.
Launched in the fall of 2013, Frankly is a portfolio company of the prestigious Stanford StartX incubator program. With total funding of nearly $22 million to date, Frankly was recently recognized with the 2014 Early Stage Investment Award from Frost & Sullivan.
'Messaging is the backbone of mobile conversations and we're incredibly excited about our traction, especially from the Generation Z demographic. We look forward to not only growing Frankly globally, but also to bringing a powerful social module to other app developers through our new chat SDK initiative,' said Steve Chung, CEO of Frankly.
Continuing the pace of product innovation, the company has released Frankly 3.0, an innovative alternative that breaks the traditional mold of other ephemeral messaging apps by enabling users the ability to send disappearing messages to friends without Frankly accounts through the use of personal links or text messages. Once a message is sent, friends of Frankly users are able to directly access a message through a webpage link on any desktop or mobile device.
Frankly's free app for iOS and Android deletes messages and photos immediately after friends read them, so every conversation is a clean slate and everything sent stays between the sender and their friends. People can download Frankly here:
iOS: http://itunes.apple.com/app/id649230807
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chatfrankly.android
About Frankly
Frankly Chat is one of the fastest growing mobile messaging apps in the market with over 1.5 million downloads, and achieved top ten social app rankings in 16 countries in the Apple AppStore. As an expansion of its popular messaging technology, Frankly is also working with partners to integrate a light weight SDK to bring a social module to other mobile applications. Based in San Francisco, Frankly has raised nearly $22 million in venture funding to date and is a portfolio company of Stanford University's StartX incubator program. For more information about Frankly, visit www.franklychat.com.